Bucksbaum Institute’s Second Annual Symposium Friday

April 25, 2013

Jerome Lowenstein, MD, founder and director of the Program for Humanistic Aspects of Medical Education at New York University, will be the keynote speaker at the Bucksbaum Institute of Clinical Excellence’s second annual symposium on Friday, April 26.

Lowenstein’s address, titled “Shifting Paradigms: The Oldest Art Became the Youngest Science,” will discuss the importance of maintaining humanistic thinking in an increasingly complex science-based medicine. The symposium also will highlight work by the institute’s scholars and underscore its ongoing commitment to strengthen the doctor-patient relationship and enhance communication and decision-making through research and education.

A distinguished physician-scientist as well as an accomplished medical humanist and prolific author, Lowenstein started New York University’s program in 1979. His goal was to encourage medical students to examine their clinical experiences at a time when education was increasingly focused on the extraordinary achievements of the past 50 years.

“Our keynote speakers are distinguished physicians who have made major contributions in the areas of doctor-patient relationship, improving patient care and bringing humanism to medical practice,” said Mark Siegler, MD, the Lindy Bergman Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine and executive director of the Bucksbaum Institute.

Following Lowenstein will be Arnold Gold, MD, professor of clinical pediatrics and neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and founder of the Arnold P. Gold Foundation, which seeks to place people and relationships at the center of every health care interaction and to improve patient care and outcomes by training doctors in the “habit of humanism.”

The afternoon event also includes research presentations from the Bucksbaum Institute’s faculty and students scholars, including Ross Milner, MD, Bucksbaum’s inaugural Master Clinician. Bucksbaum announced earlier this month that Michael Bishop, MD, professor of medicine and director of the Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation Program, will be the institute’s second Master Clinician, joining Milner.